Canada
Room
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ATTENDANCE |
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Members: |
Staff: |
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Brent Mersey, Chair Krista Olins |
Regrets
River He |
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1.
CALL TO ORDER
Brent Mersey,
Chair, called the meeting to order at
2.
CHANGES OR ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA (
Joan Jenkyn asked that the following items be added to the agenda: under New Business - Changes to the Town’s
Standing committees, Issues from the Environmental Issues Committee and Cycling
and Pedestrian Advisory Committee; along with one item under Matters Arising –
Banned Material
3.
ADOPTION OF THE MINUTES OF THE
Seconded by Stephanie Sokolyk
THAT the minutes of the Markham
Conservation Committee meeting held on
CARRIED
4.
NEW BUSINESS
a) Celebrate our
Environment (
Karen Boniface also showed the poster for Earth Day and asked for MCC’s assistance in attaching local event information on to the bottom of the poster. Karen will notify Brent when this information is available, and Brent will notify the members for volunteers to attach this information and distribute it to local retail businesses such as Tim Horton’s and local grocery stores”
Karen Boniface spoke briefly of the national initiative, Pitch-In Canada, where she will be working with the Waste Management Department to apply for two program initiatives; the Civic Pride Program and, the Clean World Award. She requested a letter from MCC indicating its support of the Town for the Clean World Award. Joan Maddock agreed to follow up and draft a letter.
Joan Maddock also reported that she received a call
from Claudia Marsales requesting participation in the Mayor’s 20 Minute
Makeover. This is where residents take
20 minutes on Earth Day, April 22 to conduct a clean up of their neighbourhood. Further information will be forthcoming.
b)
Judges for Eco Susie Garden
Awards (
c)
Communities in Bloom update (
The proposed clean-up of a tributary to the German Mills creek will be looked into further and reported on at the March meeting.
d) Small Streams Study (8:03 – 8:11 pm) – Councillor Erin Shapero advised that the Study is well underway; the final draft has been presented to Council; there has been a lot of feedback/opposition to the proposal and pressure from developers is mounting to not proceed with the this initiative; she called on MCC to make a motion of support for this Study.
On a motion by Romila Verma, seconded by Karen Volpe, and unanimously carried, the Markham Conservation Committee commends Markham Council for undertaking the Small Streams Study and its endorsement of this important initiative in the very near future.
e) Pesticide Reduction (8:11 – 8:33 pm) – Councillor Erin Shapero provided an update on the status of pesticide reduction in Ward 2 – in 2004 weed cover was done by approximately 20 – 25%; she went on to state that sports fields across the Town are pesticide free – while the cultural practices work is more labour intensive – it is expected that the program will continue through 2005. The Councillor went on to advise that further education camps will be set up in Ward 2 and also mentioned a calendar that has been produced which sets out what needs to be done on a monthly basis to ensure success of weed reduction without pesticides; Councillor Shapero indicated she would bring the material to the next MCC meeting.
Council has requested staff to prepare a pesticide by-law over the
next two months modelled after the
f) Tree By-law (
g) Changes to Town’s
Standing Committees (7:59 – 8:03 pm) – Joan Jenkyn read a notice that
appeared in The Thornhill Liberal on January 25, 2005, pertaining to changes
recently implemented to the Town of Markham’s standing committee meetings: “The Council of the Town of Markham has
approved changing the Standing Committee structure to a General Committee
System. All members of Council sit on a
new General Committee that incorporates the Finance & Administrative Committee,
Transportation Committee and Community Services & Environment
Committee. The General Committee meets
on alternating Mondays of the month at
h) Issues from Environmental Issues Committee – deferred to next meeting
i) Cycling & Pedestrian Advisory Committee – deferred to next meeting
5.
MATTERS
ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
a) Markham Conservation Committee Goals 2004/2005 (8:55 – 9:00
pm) – The Chair stated more input was needed from all members along with
clarification as to what sub-committees there should be; he indicated that all
members have indicated an interest in the Community Outreach subcommittee; the
Chair will continue to work on this issue and report back at the March meeting.
b) Town
6. REPORTS
OF SUBCOMMITTEES
a) Waste Management (8:44
– 8:55 pm) - J. Maddock spoke of a
recent stakeholders’ workshop that she, B. Mersey, K. Olins, and J. O’Gorman
attended at the Region of York where C. Marsales reported that the 2 worst
waste management offenders are the schools and small businesses; she recognized
the work being done by the Waste Management Department in relation to one small
business that had been continually putting out 30 – 40 bags of waste (including
confidential medical documents, medical waste, etc.) and in order to renew
their parking permit has been forced to improve their waste handling.
b) Community Outreach and Education (8:33 – 8:44 pm) – S. Sokolyk gave an update
on the Earth Day event scheduled for April 23 at Markville Mall; the Muskoka
Wild Life Centre have agreed to participate at a cost of $454.75 including GST;
Markville Mall has agreed to set-up and take down the sound system at a cost of
$25.00 including GST; there were other miscellaneous costs for photographs,
prizes, printing, etc. totalling approximately $300.00. S. Sokolyk also requested Committee approval
for the expenditure of an amount not to exceed $1000.00 to cover the expenses
for this event.
It was also suggested that Loblaws and the
Region of York be invited to participate in the Earth Day events at Markville
Mall.
On a motion by Joan Jenkyn and
seconded by John O’Gorman, approval was given for the expenditure of an amount
not to exceed $1000.00 to cover the expenses for the upcoming Earth Day event
to be held at Markville Mall on Saturday, April 23, 2004.
7. REPORTS
FROM RELATED COMMITTEES
a)
8. ITEMS FOR INFORMATION
9.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Markham
Conservation Committee is scheduled for
There being no further business, it was
moved by John O’Gorman and seconded by Krista Olins, that the meeting be
adjourned at
CARRIED
ConservMin050224.doc